Bottling Help

[whitekb]

I have a beer that has fermented in a plastic bucket for 2 weeks, after checking the gravity daily it is definitely ready to bottle. Problem is I don't have enough bottles or time to do it until the weekend. If I add the priming sugar and siphon the fermented beer to the bottling bucket and let it sit there until the weekend, and then begin bottling, should everything be alright?

 

[wannabwright]

I'm sure you'll get better and more experienced answers soon but my first thought from all I've read is not to put priming sugar in until bottling...it's gonna start fermentation up again and you don't want that going on in your bucket. You wanna make sure that happens in your bottles...thus the carbing.

 

[Yooper]

Exactly! don't rack, and don't add priming sugar until you want to bottle. Just wait, and the beer will be fine right where it is.

 

[rclonber]

leave it alone in the fermentor and do the priming sugar just before you bottle. Otherwise as wannabwright says it will start the fermentation again.

 

[whitekb]

so i don't have to worry about overfermenting?

 

[Kaz]

Ya, don't add priming sugar until you are ready to transfer the beer to an airtight container, be it bottles or a keg. The yeast will eat the sugar, produce CO2 and it will all escape through an airlock or just through the lid on the bucket. IMO, 2 weeks in the primary fermenter isn't enough time anyways. You can easily let that beer go another 2 weeks in the primary while you hunt and gather more bottles.

 

[johnmcc]

Leave it in the fermentor until you're ready to bottle, most of mine go 4 weeks before I bottle..

Where in Jersey City are you? I lived there for 42 yrs, moved to Harrison a few yrs ago.

 

[Yooper]

so i don't have to worry about overfermenting?

It'll only ferment until it's done. So, no. The bigger worry would be not allowing it to finish. Once it's done, and the fermentable sugars are digested by the yeast, letting it sit won't ferment it more. It'll just give it more time to clear (because of the yeast falling to the bottom of the fermenter after they're spent) and condition.

 

[NWMOBrewer]

If you don't have enough bottles, use a 2 liter pop bottle, they are built to hold pressure, just don't let it sit for extended time like a year. Also, keep the light out